Carrots are a favourite food of foetuses, but they do not like leafy green vegetables, according to a recent research that was released on Thursday.
The results, according to researchers at Durham University in northeastern England, are the first concrete proof that newborns respond differently to distinct tastes and odours even before they are born.
Researchers examined 100 pregnant women’s 4D ultrasound images and found that newborns exposed to carrot tastes had “laughter-face” reactions.
In contrast, those who were exposed to kale tastes had higher “cry-face” reactions.
“Several studies have shown that newborns may taste and smell in the womb, but they are based on post-birth results, while our study is the first to detect these responses before to delivery,” said lead postgraduate researcher Beyza Ustun.
Therefore, “we believe that this recurrent exposure to tastes before birth might assist to build food preferences post-birth, which could be relevant when thinking about message surrounding healthy eating and the possibility of preventing “food-fussiness” while weaning.”
Taste and smell work together to give humans their sense of flavour.
This may occur in foetuses by breathing in and ingesting amniotic fluid when they are in the womb.
Researchers from Aston University in Birmingham, central England, and Durham’s Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab participated in the research, which was published in the journal Psychological Science.
There was also a group from the French National Center for Scientific Research in Burgundy.
The research teams think their discoveries might advance knowledge of how human taste and smell receptors, as well as perception and memory, evolve.
It may be claimed that repeated prenatal taste exposures may result in preferences for certain flavours encountered postnatally, according to study co-author Professor Jackie Blissett of Aston University.
In other words, exposing the baby to less-than-preferred tastes, like kale, might result in its becoming used to them while still within the mother.
The next stage is to investigate if foetuses gradually exhibit less “negative” reactions to particular flavours, leading to a better acceptance of such flavours when newborns first experience them outside of the womb.